Fluorescent Green - A poem dedicated to Monsoon

What's your favourite colour
When someone asked
In front of my eyes
Fluorescent green flashed

The colour of grass
plants, trees and leaves
The colour that converts
those in a green velvet piece



The seeds beat the summer heat
And not let the spirit die
Waiting for the rains
On the ground they lie

With the showers that fall
Straight from the heaven
Those rejoice and come alive
Out of the hot earth's oven

It's the freshness, the life
The new beginnings
The colour reminds me of
So many things

The green hills and farms
I saw from crowded trains
The lovely green fields
Dancing in the rains



The refreshed National Park
The roads to Pune all green
All set in my memory
As if just now seen

Yeah I love all bright colours
The fall colours of flame
But fluorescent green is the one
Etched in my mind's frame

May the blessings of rain
Bring this colour to life
Each year each monsoon
To rid me off stress and strife

The Art of Quilling...

Those Little tiny paper strips come in great different colors and widths. When they go round and round the needle, they transform into beautiful little thingies. Mono colour, two coloured, multi coloured. Round, leaf shaped, eye shaped, flowers. The raw material that helps the art of quilling are those tiny little things. The patterns, shapes, scenes, the kind of things that can be created using those is simply enormous, only limited to our imagination.



I have tried many things since childhood as a craft hobby, I still remember churning out those woolen flowers using pencil to complete the curtain, trying ceramic things on flower vase, painting, emboss painting, thread work embroidery to create frames, what and what not.

Stumbled upon quilling by accident, attended a class by a colleague Geeta Pahalajani for our CSR fund raising, and have got hooked on since then. The creations I have been able to make out of the quilling really makes me fall in love with it again and again.

This is by far the most time consuming form of craft that I have tried, but it's very interesting and rewarding to see the final thing I could create through the tiny shapes.

As a working mom of 2 bright kids, time is the one I always race against, but quilling has still managed to extract hours out of me, just shows the kind of fun and creative satisfaction it brings to the art lover.








I have really enjoyed my experiments with quilling and you can see some of those in the blog, but I know I haven't even scratched the surface. The kind of creations people have achieved through quilling is mind blowing, specially the 3D ones.

I really hope to continue my experiments with quilling. Things that I have on agenda are the floating rangoli designs on foam paper that can double up as decoration around eating plates or wall hanging or decoration during festivals. Would post another blog if I can really ship it out soon. Till then happy quilling!

Empty mind is devil's workshop... really?

"Empty mind is devil's workshop" We all have heard this in early childhood, and have been making many attempts to keep ourselves busy in something or the other all the time.

I am sure the proverb must have been coined by either some helpless parents of hyper active and naughty Denise the Menaces or may be by unfortunate victims of crimes that arose out of some empty and devilish minds.



For an average person like you and me, is an empty mind really a bad thing? I see everyone hooked on to their smartphones while travelling or listening to music while walking or running, or surfing TV when they supposedly have nothing else to do. For my kids I myself have been worried about their free time and planned for activities do that they do something rather than nothing.

I have also observed that this sounds more like an urban phenomenon when people want to do something all the time, even when that something may not be as value adding. In rural places, I have seen people enjoying free time, for there is only so much they can do anyways.



I have personally started enjoying free time or time when my mind is empty. I stay away from my smartphone while travelling, from music while walking and love to spend that time without any agenda. For kids I have found the free time is really de-stressing and so it is for me.



It allows new thoughts to enter into the mind that is "empty" at that point, it allows some freshness in already cluttered mind, it allows time to reflect back on some things or even think strategically for some of my work.

It allows me to "see" what's going around, hear and relate to other people' conversations. Be it in the bus, or at airport or in office, the quiet time or the empty mind with no agenda turns it into a workshop indeed. To churn out something good, new that may not be possible with a busy and occupied mind.

First rain of the season, Always special

Yeah, so many years in Mumbai and still fascinated by the first good spell of the monsoon :)

It's been raining quite a bit since morning, and I have to reach a conference at thane by 9:00. No luxury of my usual bus I set out for the venture. I had chosen a nice white kurtha for today, doesn't seem like a good idea now! The new sandals with heels that I bought and the shop keeper promised as "all season hai madam", have to appear their first test today, finally managed to get into a bus, but the conductor declares this would directly go to thane station, no stops in between.

I get down and manage to get an auto convincing him that the place is on main road itself! The auto stops every 5 minutes and the guy needs to restart, "wire me paani Gaya hai madam, waise to koi problem nahi hai", he assures. I can only pray that the auto can survive till thane. Is this how the software users must be feeling when they need restart the app or browsers every now while using our buggy software ;) But the Ghodbunder road is so scenic to ignore this little problem, more beautiful after the first rain.

Whatever be the case, I love the Mumbai monsoon. The big respite it brings after the hot summer and the freshness it brings to everything washing off all the dust and dullness is simply awesome. It brings hope, adds fun to the otherwise dull and sweaty routine and gives us different things to worry about for 3-4 months.



Here is one for the First Rains!!

Dear rain welcome back
We had been waiting for you so much
For you will add spice to life
And coolness freshness as such

Though the roads flood and get muddy
And cars love to splash on us
Though we get drenched all the way
Till we get that auto or bus

We all love you for the life you bring
With our wide open arms
Please Shake up every boring thing
As usual through your charms

So please keep coming on time, again and again. We will fall in love with you every year!!

Don't let your child waste summer vacation!!

Just how annoying a summer camp advertisement can get! As a parent I keep getting this advertisement all the time. All kinds of camps are present to cater to all kinds of parents. Focused summer camps to teach children specific things right from acting, dance, sports till robotics. Generic camps to have kids spend time on crafty things. The advertisements are all over, newspapers, special fliers, Facebook, school circulars, whatsapp, in conversations with other parents. All it does is at least gets me ponder over if my kids are wasting their summer vacation...



I do not remember my parents worrying about summer camps. It was not fashionable then. My brother and I would go to our grand parents place in summers. We would have a gala time playing a lot of games with our society friends all day and night.

But it was different for me. I was worried about whether my kids may waste their summer vacation doing nothing. There was a time when my son was pretty young and started going to play group. That summer was the first time I had sent him for a summer camp for 15 days, 2 hours each day. I did that for some more years including sending my daughter as well there. The idea was exactly this, what are they going to do at home anyways, how can I keep them engaged most of the times in some or the other activities. Whether my child will be left behind if other kids are learning something new during summers. How much learning comes out of that, and whether the kids really wanted to go or not was not thought about.



After a while I started thinking about whether as a parent I have become obsessed with what my child does all the time and whether the time spent is a quality time or not. I also read about empty mind and free time for kids. As they started growing in their school activities during the academic year I felt that they probably need time that's not planned by us for something, something they can plan for themselves.

This summer was a lot of fun for them and for me. My kids did 10 hours of craft club, 3.5 days of TCS Maitree Summer smiles, and the rest of the time was spent on meeting relatives, having a great time with cousins and friends. Most of the time they were not at home, either at their grand parents' or at our native place or visiting different places they always wanted to or playing downstairs with their friends. I am really hoping that they learnt some social skills by doing it I e how to deal with people, how to have an empty mind,decide what to do for themselves.



I think I am coming to terms to come out of the compulsive need to manage my kids' time "more effectively and more quality'. I know I can do better than this. I am just hoping that kids could de-stress and enjoy themselves. -and are feeling fresh to start school again!